Loyola University Maryland opens the 2012-2013 regular-season on Friday, November 9, when it hosts Binghamton University at 7:30 p.m. in Reitz Arena.

The game is the first of 31 during the regular-season for the Greyhounds in the 103rd season of men’s basketball at Loyola.

Tune In

The game, along with all of the Greyhounds’ non-televised home games, will be broadcast live and free of charge on ‘Hounds Unleashed, the broadband arm of LoyolaGreyhounds.com. Video is available on computers and most mobile devices platforms.

Series History

Loyola and Binghamton will meet for the first time when they take the court Friday.

The Greyhounds went 3-0 last season against teams in the America East Conference, defeating UMBC and Boston University at home and New Hampshire on the road.

Loyola is 33-26 all-time against teams currently in the league with the vast majority (44) of those games coming against crosstown foe UMBC.

What’s Back

Loyola returns eight of 12 players who saw game action, including four players – forward Erik Etherly and guards Dylon Cormier, Robert Olson and R.J. Williams – who started in the NCAA Tournament game last season.

In all, the eight returning players accounted for 73-percent of Loyola’s minutes last year, 70-percent of rebounds, 80-perecnt of assists, 79-percent of steals, 65-percent of blocked shots and 71-percent of points.

So Long

Four players departed from last year’s roster, including J’hared Hall and Shane Walker who graduated from Loyola in May and two players who elected to transfer – Justin Drummond (Toldeo) and Pierson Williams (Cal State-Dominguez Hills).

Walker started all 33 games in the post for Loyola last year and averaged 9.0 points and 6.3 rebounds per game while dishing out 50 assists and blocking 42 shots. Drummond was an All-MAAC Third Team honoree and MAAC Sixth Player of the Year while scoring 10.7 points per game a year ago.

Preseason MAAC Honors

Three Loyola players were named to the various Preseason All-MAAC teams as voted on by the coaches of the league.

Erik Etherly earned an All-MAAC First Team nod, while Dylon Cormier and Robert Olson were named to the Second Team.

The MAAC will announce its preseason poll of order of finish in the league on its Preseason Awards Show that will be aired on ESPN3 this Friday at 8:15 p.m.

Classy Senior

Senior guard Robert Olson was named one of 30 candidates for the prestigious Senior CLASS Award last week. An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School®, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.

Olson was the Greyhounds’ third-leading scorer last season with 11.1 points per game and enters this season Loyola ranked fourth at Loyola in 3-point percentage (138-of-336, .4107) sixth in career 3-pointers made (138) and eighth in 3-pointers attempted (336).

Last season, Olson was one of four Loyola players to earn All-MAAC honors, picking up Third Team mention and later All-Tournament honors.

High Marks

The Loyola men’s basketball team scored the highest amongst squads in the State of Maryland in the most recent NCAA Graduation Success Rate report. The Greyhounds checked in with a 91-percent GSR, tops among the state’s nine Division I schools, for players who entered the school between 2002-2005.

Saint Peter’s Game At The Meadowlands

The Loyola-Saint Peter’s Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game slated for Saturday, December 8, has been moved from the Peacocks’ Jersey City campus to the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, N.J., at the Meadowlands complex.

The Greyhounds and Peacocks will tip-off at 12 noon prior to the second game of the doubleheader between Duke and Temple.

Second NCAA Trip

Last year, Loyola made its first trip to the NCAA Tournament in 18 seasons, a span of 17 years, 11 months and 23 days. In all, it was 6,569 days between NCAA Tournament Games for the Greyhounds.

Last year’s true freshmen – Tyler Hubbard and R.J. Williams – were less than one year old the last time Loyola played in an NCAA match.

MAAC Title

Loyola won its second MAAC Championship in 23 years in the conference on Monday, March 5, 2012, defeating Fairfield University, 48-44, in the lowest scoring championship game in league history.

The Greyhounds held Fairfield to just six second-half field goals and 28.8-percent shooting in the game.

Loyola, which finished second in the conference during the regular season and earned the No. 2 seed in the league tournament, defeated Niagara University and Siena College in the MAAC Quarterfinals and Semifinals, respectively.

Defense Wins Championships

The Greyhounds played outstanding defense in the MAAC title game, holding Fairfield to 44 points and 28.8-percent shooting for the game. The 44 points were the fewest Loyola had allowed in a game this season. It was the fewest points a Loyola opponent had scored since the Greyhounds held Dartmouth to 41 in a 58-41 decision on November 24, 2009.

Loyola allowed the Stags to shoot just 6-for-31 (.194) in the second half, scoring only 22 points, the fewest points against the Greyhounds in any half this season.

After trailing by four points (30-26) at halftime, Loyola held Fairfield without a point for the first 7:48 of the second half, and without a field goal for the first 8:48. In that period, the Greyhounds outscored the Stags 11-1 to take a 37-31 lead.

Turnaround…Check

Loyola completed the turnaround from finishing the 2003-2004 season with the lowest RPI in NCAA Division I basketball. The Greyhounds finished that season with a 1-27 record the season before Jimmy Patsos took over as head coach.

Since then, Loyola has gone 122-123 and culminated the turnaround by winning a school Division I record 24 games in 2011-2012.

Patsos is one of only three coaches at the Division I level in the last 20 years to take over a program that had won zero or one game the year prior to then win 100 games at the school. He joins Steve Cleveland (BYU) and Pat Douglass (UC-Irvine) as the others.

Outstanding Performance By Etherly

Erik Etherly was named the MAAC Tournament Most Outstanding Player after averaging a team-best 17.3 points and 5.7 rebounds over the three games.

Etherly was in double figures in each of the three games, including back-to-back 20-point games for the first time in his career in the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds.

He followed that with 10 points, seven rebounds and a career-high five blocks in the MAAC title game vs. Fairfield.

He shot 20-for-38 (.526) from the floor and 11-for-14 (.786) from the foul line, while finishing with nine blocks.

Last season, Etherly was named to the All-MAAC First Team after averaging 13.7 points and 7.5 rebounds per game, both tops for the Greyhounds.

He also became the second player in school history to earn National Association of Basketball Coaches All-District honors, when he joined Mike Powell (1997) and earned Second Team laurels.

Cormier Continues Upswing

Dylon Cormier led the Greyhounds in scoring 13 times during the 2011-2012 season and scored 20 or more points on seven occasions as a sophomore, earning All-MAAC Second Team honors.

The Baltimore native made a huge jump in production from his freshman year when he averaged 8.1 points per game and started 28 games for Loyola. He showed a marked improvement in shooting as a sophomore, hitting 46.1-percent of his shots form the field after making just 37.9-percent as a freshman.

20-Win Season

The Greyhounds’ victory over Boston University on February 19, 2012, was their 20th of the season, setting a school Division I record.

Loyola, which moved to NCAA Division I in 1981-1982, had won 19 games in 2007-2008 and 18 in 2006-2007.

The overall school record for victories, 25, came in 1948-1949.

Patsos Named Coach & Man Of The Year

Jimmy Patsos became the first Loyola coach to earn The Rock/Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Coach of the Year honors by a vote of his peers in the league.

Patsos guided the Greyhounds to a school Division I high 24 wins and a program MAAC record 13 victories. He earned his 100th career coaching victory in November 2012 and led the Greyhounds to the No. 2 seed in the MAAC Championships.

Later in March, Patsos was named the Skip Prosser Man of the Year award for his work on and off the court, an honor presented by CollegeInsider.com.

2012 All-MAAC Honors

For the first time since the league expanded to three All-MAAC teams in 1998, four Greyhounds received all-league honors, topping all teams in the conference. Erik Etherly was named to the All-MAAC First Team, Dylon Cormier to the Second, and Justin Drummond and Robert Olson to the Third.

Loyola led all teams in the MAAC with its four selections, just in front of Iona’s three.

The Greyhounds’ previous high was at the end of the 1997-1998 season when Mike Powell (1st), Jason Rowe (2nd) and Roderick Platt (3rd) earned All-MAAC honors.

Etherly led Loyola in scoring (13.7), rebounding (7.5) and blocked shots (50), while finishing second on the team with 63 assists. He shot .530 from the field, good for third in the conference

Cormier was second on the team in scoring, just back of Etherly, with a 13.4 points per game average while improving his field-goal percentage nearly 10 points from his freshman season to .461 as a sophomore.

Drummond has come off the bench in 29 of the Greyhounds’ 33 games last year and is fourth on the team with 11.1 points per game. The guard as also third in rebounding (3.9), and he has scored in double figures 17 times this year.

Olson was one of the top 3-point shooters in the conference last year. He shot .431 from behind the arc, third-best in the MAAC, and averaged 11.1 points per game. The guard entered the month of January averaging less than nine points per game, but from that point forward, he was the team’s second-leading scorer at nearly 13 a contest.

Big Buckets By Bush

Anthony Winbush scored just 16 points in the Greyhounds’ MAAC Championships run, but five of his field goals have come at critical junctures in the victories.

Winbush hit two 3-pointers midway through the first half of the MAAC title game that were part of a 10-3 Loyola run, giving the Greyhounds a 16-9 lead with 10:12 left in the half. Prior to the two 3-pointers, Winbush was 3-for-15 (.167) from downtown on the season.

In the Semifinal game vs. Siena, he tallied Loyola’s fifth and sixth points of the game, scoring in the paint at 12:13 to stop an 11-0 Siena run that had the Saints ahead 11-4. He then made a jumper at 6:31 that put the Greyhounds ahead 17-16 in the first half.

In the Quarterfinal victory over Niagara, Winbush’s first half basket with 2:32 on the clock broke a 31-31 tie.

More Than 60 Years

The last time the Loyola men’s basketball program won 20 games in a season, 1948-1949, the following things were going on in the world, 63 years ago:

Harry Truman began his first full term as President of the United States.

Arthur Miller’s Death Of A Salesman premiered on Broadway.

NATO was formed.

The Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League merged to form the NBA.

First back-to-back sellouts of Reitz Arena since the venue opened in 1984 (Feb. 3 and 10).

Century Mark

Head Coach Jimmy Patsos became the third coach in Loyola history to win 100 games when the Greyhounds defeated UMBC, 73-63, on the road last season. Patsos, who is now in his ninth season, took over a team that finished 1-27 during the 2002-2003 season. He won his 100th game in his 215th career game.

Last season, Patsos moved into third-place all time at Loyola in victories, trailing only Lefty Reitz (349 wins, 1937-44, 1945-61) and Nap Doherty (165, 1961-74).

Loyola All-Time Coaching Wins List

1.

349

Lefty Reitz

1937-1944, 1945-1961

2.

165

Nap Doherty

1961-1974

3.

122

Jimmy Patsos

2004-present

4.

85

Mark Amatucci

1982-1989

5.

72

Gary Dicovitsky

1976-1981

Baltimore Bred And More From Nearby

Since taking over as head coach in 2004, Jimmy Patsos has put an emphasis on recruiting locally, and it has never shown as much as on this year’s roster. Four players – junior guard Dylon Cormier (Cardinal Gibbons), junior forward Jordan Latham (City) and sophomore guard R.J. Williams and freshman forward Josh Forney (St. Frances) are products of schools within the city limits.

Six more players played in high school within 50 miles of Loyola, as the crow flies (thanks daftlogic.com): Jarred Jones, John Carroll, 20.5; Tyler Hubbard, Montrose Christian, 32.6 miles; Robert Olson, Georgetown Prep, 33.9; Anthony Winbush, T.C. Williams, 43.7; and Erik Etherly, Annandale, 47.9.